Valley students expected to join walkouts to protest gun violence
Apr 19, 2018, 2:48 PM | Updated: Apr 20, 2018, 9:26 am
PHOENIX — Students from around the Valley are expected to take part in a national walkout to protest gun violence Friday. That’s 19 years to the day after a shooting at Colorado’s Columbine High School shocked the nation and left 13 dead.
Over 2,100 walkouts are planned nationally, at least one in every state, according the National School Walkout website. The protests were organized by four students from Ridgefield High School in Connecticut. Lane Murdock, a sophomore, founded the group.
The organizers’ stated goal is to hold elected officials accountable, promote solutions to gun violence, and demystify and engage students in the political system.
There is also a “die-in” gun control protest planned at the Capitol for Friday afternoon.
Organizers say three survivors of the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, plan to attend the Phoenix events on Friday. One of the Parkland students, Alfonso Calderon, told KTAR News 92.3 FM they are here to help “give the local leaders a voice.”
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“We want to empower the kids to understand the issue of gun control, and to tell them specifically to ask for universal background checks,” Calderon said.
They are pushing Gov. Doug Ducey to call a special session to pass gun violence legislation and include them in negotiations on school safety proposals.
The Arizona Senate is considering a school safety bill that doesn’t include universal background checks. The bill advanced from committee on a 4-3 vote Thursday and now goes to the full Senate for debate. The committee vote was split on party lines, with the three Democrats voting against it.
While the type of protest will vary from school to school, the suggested action is for walkouts to start at 10 a.m. local time and last the remainder of the school day. Organizers suggest a 13-second moment of silence followed by an open-mic opportunity for students to make their voices heard.
Teachers in Arizona were rumored to hold a walkout in demand for higher wages on Friday, but instead will hold their protest on April 26. The walkout comes after 57,000 Arizona educators voted in favor of the protest Thursday, demanding better pay.
Friday’s events are just the latest gun violence protests since the Parkland Massacre.
On March 14, students at several Valley high schools joined a walkout one month after 17 people were killed in the Parkland shooting. For those protests, students left classes for 17 minutes.
On March 24, an estimated 15,000 gun control advocates of all ages gathered at the Arizona Capitol as part of the national March for Our Lives protest.
KTAR News’ Griselda Zetino and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
